Currently various Member States (MS) are launching initiatives to introduce e-health infrastructures and applications. They are dealing with critical issues of technical, semantic and workflow interoperability almost exclusively at the regional or national level. These developments threaten to hamper the further development of a European market in e-health applications and cross-border services. Building upon the activities in MS, the results of European RTD, and learning from international efforts, the project will initiate a process for accelerating the deployment of interoperable e-health infrastructures and applications for trans-European use. It will

• identify interoperability and connectivity issues and priorities, barriers and gaps, and solution approaches,
• focus on fundamental interoperability issues (like identification of actors, organisations, adequate measures to achieve interoperability, integration tests and certification)
• analyse similarly key topics relating to e-prescription and messaging
• develop a roadmap and concrete projects involving all relevant actors – guided by an open discussion process amongst Member State Health Authorities.

Allowing for patient mobility and cross-border medical care is a key EU policy priority and one focus of the e-Health Action Plan. Identifying needs, gaps and next steps will help to realise concrete solutions to reach these goals. Interoperability will allow more effective health services to be delivered wherever citizens are and wherever they may have come from in Europe.